The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Washington wins a thriller over Oregon, USC’s in trouble and Colorado collapses

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt revels in Washington’s thrilling win over Oregon and details why it was such an important game for the sport as a whole. He dives into Dan Lanning’s key 4th down decisions and reveals whether he agreed or disagreed with the Oregon coach’s aggressive mentality. Klatt discusses Notre Dame’s emphatic win over USC and why he was so impressed with the Irish before breaking down how the Trojans have a major issue – and it’s not the one everyone anticipated heading into that game. He then discusses Colorado’s crushing loss vs Stanford on Friday night and what Coach Prime will need to fix to get the Buffaloes to bowl eligibility. Klatt also gives some love to North Carolina and Air Force for their big wins over the weekend before wrapping up with an acknowledgement of a mistake in Saturday’s broadcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the Joel Clat show, did we just get the game of the year in early October? We might have. And Colorado, what are we doing? Oh, my gosh. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. It was an epic day of college football. It was one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again. All right, I'm back. I'm back. We're good. We're good. We're good. It is the Joel Clad show, and it is a Monday morning, and thank you for being a part of it. This show, as always, is presented by Hampton by Hilton. We've got a lot to get into today because it was another, as we always say,

really great week of college football. Might have had the game of the year. We'll obviously break down this Washington win over Oregon, the atmosphere, everything around it, and all the controversy as well. I'll get into some of the coaching decisions that were made specifically by Dan Lannning, and we'll talk about them. We'll just talk through them more than anything. I'm not going to bark at Dan Lannning.

I'm not going to be one of these guys that says he can't do what he did. I want to talk through him with you so that you understand them better. We all understand them better. And then maybe we watch college football a little bit differently moving forward. We're getting to the USC as well, that loss to Notre Dame. Notre Dame playing great, by the way, at the end of a four-game onslaught of tough games. Colorado, yeah, I've got thoughts. and then a couple of teams that really shined on Saturday,

and then I've got something at the end, Penn State fans, you're going to want to stick around. I've got some thoughts on what I said on the Michigan game about James Franklin's comments about scheduling. So that's coming up. That'll be at the end of the show. Let's start with Washington, Oregon. And before we get into the game specifically,

I just want to say, like, that game was incredible for college football for a lot of reasons. Any great game is, whether it's in the SEC, see in the Big 10, Big 12, or in the PAC 12, or in the ACC as well. Any great big game and great environment is great for the sport. There's no doubt. But let's be honest, we haven't had many of these environments on the west side of the United States in a long time.

And so what I saw on Saturday, now we've seen some good environments, but they've generally been like kind of like half games, right, where we have two top 10 teams that are great teams going out in front of an incredible environment. The stadium looked amazing. That's one of my favorite venues. I can't wait to get back there. Husky fans bring it all the time. That's one of the loudest stadiums in college football.

I think that this has been missing for the better part of a decade. A great West Coast environment with a top 10 matchup right there on the water. That was terrific. And so broadly speaking, I feel like that game in the environment. and everything surrounding it was very good for college football to broaden the focus of the sport and make it less regional, which it has seemed at times regional over the last decade. Next thought would be could anybody have won on Saturday in that environment? I'm not totally sure if they could have because, one, Washington's really good, obviously. Got a great quarterback and now certainly in the lead for the Heisman Trophy.

and then the noise and setting, I felt like was second to none. And there's not a lot of teams that can go in there and have success or even have the success to the level that Oregon did, by the way, in that game. Which brings me to my last point generally, which is I now really believe that there are still eight good teams, really good teams, national championship level teams in college football. Last week, I felt like that line had maybe moved up. And Georgia and Michigan maybe were separating themselves. but after what we saw this weekend, in particular in that game,

and then maybe in other games around the country as well, my top 10 didn't change much, but my line kind of changes. And I didn't move Oregon down, by the way. Now, Washington's ahead of them, but in my top 10, it looks similar. I will be very honest with you. I was frustrated with myself that Washington wasn't higher. That was a tough one. When I put them at 7, I stopped, and I'm like, that's not right.

they should be higher. The problem is everybody ahead of them either had an off week, and I'm not going to penalize you, in particular, OU, after your win over Texas, or handled their business with flying colors. Maybe with the exception of like Georgia, and as we've talked about, Georgia can get the benefit of the doubt at times. So it was very difficult around. I mean, look what Michigan did to Indiana and Florida State did.

and obviously OU, their last game was Texas, Ohio State, without all of their offensive players, except for Marvin Harrison. They were incredibly impressive against Purdue. And then Penn State, obviously, I know it's UMass, but just continuing to take care of business. So yes, I was frustrated that Washington wasn't higher on my top 10, but it just kind of is what it is. And in particular, when you read this and look at it with the narrative that the line for me is really below eight. I go Georgia, Michigan, Florida, State, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Penn State, then seven, Washington, eight, Oregon, nine North Carolina, and 10, Texas. So again, Oregon doesn't move.

They're still at eight. Washington is at seven. I wish I could have put them higher, but I didn't. And there's eight teams that can win the national championship. Maybe nine, maybe 10. That line continues to stay really deep in college football. So Oregon's a really good football team, but now we've got to get more into the specifics of the game and more so the philosophy of the game, some of the game management.

This is what it sounded like. Third and two from the 17. Snap to panic. Helmut High. He's going to throw it toward the end zone for Adunze. He holds on. Well, it's still October, but yes, Adonze is terrific. Maybe a Bolitnikov winner, Marvin will have something to say about that.

Keon Coleman will have something to say about that. Excellent, excellent wide receivers in college football. And Adonze is certainly right at the top of that list. Let's get into this because there's going to be a lot of talk. And even Dan Lannin came out and said, hey, 100% on me. Dan Lannings going to be aggressive, okay? And let's just start right there. If you're watching the game, you realize that Dan Lanning is going to go for two-point conversions.

He's going to go for it on fourth down. This was the conversation last year, by the way. And the losses last year, Dan Lannning did this. And in the losses, they were unsuccessful on fourth down. And guess what? on Saturday they were unsuccessful on fourth down. But it calls into question the timing with which some of these fourth downs occurred and the situation in which some of these fourth downs occurred.

So let's go into two of them specifically. There was a fourth and goal right before halftime. Under 10 seconds to go in the half, Washington's up 2218, and Oregon decides to go for a fourth and goal. Now, I disagree with this call from Dan Lanning. Now, let's go to the end of the game. It's fourth and three. They're up 33-29.

There's about 2.10 left in the game. They go for it. I don't hate it. I think more people are talking about this situation at the end of the game than they are the one before the half. Let's walk through both of them quickly. The one before the half is, I feel like, more of a wrong decision, even if that's your mentality, even if that's what you want to do.

as a coach. If you want to be aggressive on fourth down, that's fine. That's fine. And I'm not going to take that away from Dan Lang. That's the way he coaches. However, in that situation specifically, part of the advantage of going forward on fourth down inside the 10th. So fourth and goal, let's just call it fourth and goal. Part of part of the advantage of going forward on fourth and goal is the fact that, yes, you can increase, that can be a four point play because you go for it rather than kick the fuel goal. So that's a four point delta. So it's a four point play.

That's a huge delta to put on one snap of the football. Okay, that's obvious. There's also this sentiment that, hey, even if we fail, we're setting ourselves up in the future of this game, down the road in this game, namely our next possession, for a likelihood of getting the ball in a spot on the field where we're going to have a higher percentage to score, i.e. better field position.

Okay, so if it's the normal course of the game and I go forward on fourth down, even if I'm unsuccessful, I can then create great field position in my next offensive series based on the fact that they're backed up. So that's got to be baked into the cake when I'm going forward on fourth down. Now, that's if time allows for a next possession to ensue. When you do this with under 10 seconds to go in the half, now you don't have the benefit of the failure.

So there's all downside and none of the slight upside if you aren't able to get into the end zone. This is the reason why I think in the situation, it's time to take the three points. You've got them. They're in your pocket. Take them. Put them on the scoreboard.

And at that point, it's a one point game. You get the second half kickoff and then you roll from there. As it is, you don't get that. And you create a belief for the Washington defense. You create an energy for them going into half. Now their entire 20 minute halftime has a lot more energy. It's a lot more upbeat because they didn't just give up a score. Okay, so you're creating positivity on the other side.

Meanwhile, your guys go in a bit dejected. And then you come in or excuse me, out after half. Guess what happened to Oregon? Three and out to start the second half. Product of all of those things I'm just talking about. So that specific example, I would just say, I thought Dan Lannning mismanaged that part of the game. That's the time to take the field goal. You don't have any of the benefits of not succeeding on your fourth and goal.

Now, let's go to the end of the game. Less egregious. Less egregious. Okay, you've got fourth and three. It's two ten left. And I believe if I'm not mistaken, Washington did not. I think they only had one timeout left. I might be wrong on that.

believe that they only had one timeout left. And at that moment, that snap is the game with the clock where it's at. That snap is the game. So now you have to think to yourself like, Dan Lanning's nature is aggressiveness. That's the way he's built this entire program. Fake punts against Colorado, fourth downs against everybody, two point conversions against everybody. If you were to ask Dan Lannning before the game, let's say, you know, I go down on the field and I always like just chat very briefly with coaches before the game during warmups. If I were to ask

Dan landing in that situation, I'm on the field and I say, Dan, if I told you, you were in a position to be aggressive and have one snap to win the game, maybe it's a two point conversion, maybe it's a fourth down. Would you take it? He would say before the game, watching the 78,000 people file into that stadium and knowing what he's about to face with pinnics on the other side, he would say, absolutely, absolutely. And he had that chance. That's there for him. Right there. He's got it. It's fourth and three. Go ahead. Go for it. So I don't think that that's as egregious. Now, you know, some have said, well, you pun it. your defense had played well in the second half.

They had only given up the basically the one score in the second half. That fails a little bit on me only because in the previous series, he watched Washington take 13 plays and go right down the field and then end up stopping at the one yard line. Remember, they got stopped at the one, which is why that drive kind of started from there. So he drives it out from the shadow of his own end zone. And he's got the game and he's got one snap. Take it.

He's got a quarterback that played 53, has started 53 games in his. career. So again, I don't think that's as egregious. Now, let's talk about just something different than the, different than the decision to go for it in those situations is more about the execution of the going for it. Let's create just a little bit of a scenario. If I'm a coach or coaches out there, this is what you should do. Play to the strengths of your best players, namely your quarterbacks. If you're going to have big moments in critical games against really good level of competition, what you have to do is, at least in my estimation, and I think most, I think that you've got to put your quarterback

in a position where his strengths are being leaned on. So basically, you lean into your quarterback. Big moments of big games, you lean in to your quarterback. That should be the philosophy of every play caller in America. Okay. Every play caller in America should be calling things that his quarterback can perform, is comfortable performing, and is good at. And so take a look at, or let's think about the situation at the end of the game. This game was always going to come down to the end. Once you saw how this was playing out, you realize like, this is going to be one series on one side of one series on the other.

And it's like, whoever can execute in those moments is going to win the game. So what ends up happening? Well, I felt like one team really leaned into the strengths of their quarterbacks and succeeded and the other team in the most critical moments leaned more into system than they did quarterback. Let me tell you what I mean by that. On the last series, after the fourth down stop, and Washington goes back on the field. It's the biggest series of their year. What did Kalin DeBore and Ryan Grubb do? Ryan Grub's the offense coordinator, who by the way, has a long history with Kalin-de-Bore. Long history, right? He's with him at Sioux Falls. He's been with them everywhere.

Fresno, now he's here. They have a history. So you know their communication is rock-s- solid. What do they do? They put the game in the hands of Michael Pinnock's. And you might be saying like, well, of course they're going to. Yes, but it's more about even just the concepts that are called. Michael Pinnock is an incredibly experienced passer and quarterback. And what they wanted to do was give him the field. Let him survey the field and pick a matchup that he likes. Get into a formation that puts stress on the defense so that maybe he can get a one-on-one. Okay. Let him survey the field. Let him. him read something out. Why? That's what he's good at. Let him throw with leverage. Be a great passer. Why? Because that's what he's good at. And that's what happened. And they score in two plays. He throws a ball right down the seam. Then he gets a duncee. And boom, it's a touchdown. And the only thing you could say is, hey, they might have scored too soon. Yeah, maybe. Maybe they could take a little bit more time off the play clock before that first snap. But you know what? They're down four. They've got to score. And what did he do? Kalin DeBoer put the game in his quarterback

hands. That's what you should do in those moments. Now, conversely, what did Oregon do in the biggest moments of the game, whether it was the fourth down before the half or the fourth down at the end of the game, they did not do that. I said it before this, Bo Nix has started 53 games in college football, 53, and they sprint out on fourth down both times. One to the right, one to the right, one of the the left. I talked about this last week on the show when I ran down my Heisman trophy candidates. Bow-Nicks superpower is his efficiency. It's his ability to execute the offense. When you have a guy that is that experienced, you have to allow him to operate with 53 and a half yards. What I mean by that is a full field read. He's got to come up to the line of scrimmage with options everywhere.

Why? Because his strength is the system. His strength is his experience. He's so efficient. The ball finds the right spot all the time. Let him do that. Will Stein, the offensive coordinator for Dan Lannning, they're working together really for the first time. Hires him from UTSA because Kenny Billingham goes down to Arizona State. And so there's not the rock side. solid communication or the overarching philosophy that maybe Ryan Grubb and Kaelin DeBore have on the other side. Washington leans into their quarterback. They let him be in his element, do what he does best. Oregon, in the biggest moments, tried to lean on scheme, sprint out both times. All that does is reduce the width of the field. As soon as you sprint out, the field is reduced by shoot, three quarters, three quarters, and really you're looking for one win. And if you don't

happen, if you don't have it, it's mayhem. It's mayhem. I just think that in the biggest moments, you've got to allow your quarterback to do what he does best. And for Bo Nix, that's being efficient, that's running the system, that's allowing him to make the decision of where the ball should go. Predetermining that throw for him means sprinting him out. And by the way, fourth and three, sprinting him out to the left, I just don't love the play call in those situations. And certainly, I think that they should have taken the points right before half. That being said, that was a great game. I mean, a phenomenal game, great for college football,

and that's why I left both teams right there. By the way, Oregon, I was so impressed. One, I didn't really move you down or outside of the top 10, and for obvious reasons. And by the way, I'll say this, as great as that Washington win was, don't we think that that would have been different if it was at Oregon? Because Oregon outplayed them for stretches of that game.

Their defense had a really, good plan in the second half. I still really like Oregon, and everything is still ahead of Oregon, just like Texas, just like Alabama. Everything's still out there for the Oregon Ducks. All right, let's move on. Hey, it's my favorite time of year. It is football season, as you know. I take it seriously.

So when I'm traveling on the road to watch my favorite teams, I can't risk calling the wrong play with where I stay. So wherever I go, I know. that I can count on Hampton by Hilton. I can depend on their comfortable rooms and their warm, friendly service. Their free hot breakfast, you know how I feel about it, it's absolute game changer. So whether you're cheering on your team from the stands

or never leaving the tailgate, Hampton by Hilton will always give you that win. USC traveled out to South Bend. This is what it sounded like. 94th meeting of the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football will end with the greatest win of this season. far for Notre Dame. Fighting Irish, knock off the Trojans, 48 to 20. Complete domination from start to finish. Great win for Notre Dame. Really great win. And especially at the back end of this

four-game stretch, which was really difficult. They had to face Ohio State at home and prime time, highly emotional game. They faced Duke on the road, prime time, highly emotional game. They get the win. They faced Louisville, prime time, on the road, highly emotional game. They get knocked off, didn't play their best. They come back home and have to face their rival, USC, in what prime time, this time at home? And they played great. So a big tip of the cap to Notre Dame. That takes an incredible amount of discipline and energy to play that well, execute that well at the back end of a four-game stretch that's that emotional and hard. Because in college football, it's not like the NFL.

college football teams, no one talks about this, but college football teams are not really built to be great every week. Or at least that's not required of them, generally speaking. You know, in the NFL, you know that you're always, you always have an NFL game every Sunday and every NFL game is very difficult. In college, that's different for the best teams. You know, they've got three or four games that are going to be difficult. And the other games, to be quite candid with you,

they don't have to play their best. So when you put four games back to back to back to back in front of a team, it's really hard. Now, they go two and two. So if you're just looking at from a record standpoint, it's like, well, did they get through unscathed? No, but their most impressive performance was at the end, which is the impressive part. Now let's move over to the USC side because the majority of this is going to be a USC take. And the reason is because that is not what anybody expected. Now, let's back up for a moment.

You might be saying like, what are you talking about? Did you think USC was going to go blow the doors off in Notre Dame? No, I thought Notre Dame was going to win. But the way it looked and the way that it played out was wild. Wild. You see, for the better part of the last call it three weeks, you can go all the way back to the Arizona State game. You can go back to Colorado in the second half, certainly the fourth quarter of that game.

You can go really throughout the entire game of Arizona at home. Although, by the way, Arizona is way better than we think. They housed Washington State this weekend. But you go through those games and you think to yourself like something's amiss. And all the talk and all the narrative was about the defense and how the defense wasn't very good. Well, defense wasn't bad Saturday. I might need to repeat that. The defense wasn't bad on Saturday.

In fact, this game. was about offensive ineptitude. Truly speaking, lack of execution on the offense, offensive failures at the line of scrimmage, poor decision-making at times under duress from Caleb Williams, turnovers. That's why they lost. This was not a defensive issue.

And all of us expected that if USC were to lose, if they were to struggle, it would be a defensive issue. Far from the case. Far from the case. Notre Dame scores 48 points in this game. USC gave up 28 points off of turnovers. By the way, in every one of those 28 points, the turnover set up USC either with a scoop and score,

or excuse Notre Dame with a scoop and score or the ball on the plus side of the 50 at or on the plus side of the 50. Totally short field. What, like, I get it. Maybe the defense can just be like hopefully great. But the bottom line was in Notre Dame's traditional offensive series. Think about this. Think about this for a moment.

Again, I'm going to spell it out plainly. 48 points for Notre Dame. And yet, if they asked Notre Dame to drive the ball, on a traditional series, just on the other side of the 50. I'm just saying like, give them the ball on the 30, the 35 on their side of the field

and make them drive. When that happened, when that happened, traditional series, Notre Dame had, what was it? 13 total points and like seven of those drives, six, seven of those drives,

13 total points. If USC's defense was in a traditional drive, Notre Dame didn't do much. They scored 28 off turnovers and 7 on a kick return. This was an offensive failure for USC. And I don't think any of us were ready for that. We weren't ready for Caleb Williams to look like he did. We weren't ready for a Lincoln Riley offense to look this stagnant because it was.

And by the way, it has been to some extent. If you go back, you start looking at it's like, should we have seen this? Should the talk have been more about the offense? struggles. And you know what? The answer is yes. And we'll fall we will fault ourselves right here at Joel Clasio, but it was not a defensive conversation. As much as we wanted to make it a defensive conversation, the last nine quarters of football. So the five previous to the Notre Dame game, so you're going back to the fourth quarter against Colorado, the four regulation quarters against Arizona, not counting overtime, because overtime you're just getting the ball at the 25. And then the four

quarters against Notre Dame. Nine quarters of football, USC has scored a total of 48 offensive points in nine quarters. That is way below what we expect. Now, in some parts of the country, like Iowa, we call that like an offensive explosion. Not in L.A., not for USC, and not for Lincoln Riley. So the question is, why? Why? Well, we could sit here and say, man, Caleb Williams played terrible.

It was his worst game. Oh, is he really that good? Three picks, too much. Okay, you know what? You can do that if you want. But I will tell you right now, this is caused by the offensive line. The offensive line at USC was not up to standard against Notre Dame,

not anywhere close up to standard. Look at the line of scrimmage numbers in these games. Notre Dame owned the line of scrimmage on both sides. tackles for loss in the game on Saturday. Notre Dame, 11 for their defense. USC for their defense, one. Sacks in the game Saturday. Notre Dame, six, USC, zero.

The line of scrimmage wasn't anywhere close to the standard it needed to be at to go in there and win. Not even close. Notre Dame dominated in the trenches. The offense for USC was held to 4.1 yards per place. the fewest in any Lincoln Riley coached game, period. Like, that's how bad the offense played. The offensive line allowed six sacks on Caleb Williams. He's been sacked 10 times over the last two games.

This has been a problem over the last month or so. This offensive line is not putting them in a position where they can have a ton of success or the success that we would expect from them because they can't run the ball. I shouldn't say can't, but they don't run it with the effect. efficiency that they should or that they need to. Because remember, at its heart, Lincoln's offense is a running offense. When it was at its best at Oklahoma, they could run the crap out of the ball. They would run for 280, 290, 300 yards per game. There were a lot of times when you'd look up

middle of the year and you'd see like Oklahoma's averaging 300 yards rushing and 300 yards passing. It would average 600 yards of total offense. It was remarkable. They are a rushing offense. It's not an air raid offense. It has air raid principles. in the passing game, but it's an offense that leans on its ability to run the ball, to create advantageous situations to throw and take shots, to get creative with formations and motion and tempo and create wins through personnel. But when you can't run, guess what you have to do? And I talk about this all the time. You throw it when you have to, versus. is throwing it when you want to.

This is a case study. Even Caleb Williams can't get out of that case study. Even as good as Caleb Williams is, when he's in the pressure cooker of having to throw it when he has to, because they are not running the ball to the efficiency that they need to, guess what? He's going to suffer. And the offensive line is not up to par. He was pressured a career high 21 times every time that he dropped back.

That was the most since the Pac-12 championship game last year against Utah. Caleb over the last five weeks, or excuse me, four weeks. And I've been telling you like, this has been going on now for a month. He's been pressured 58 times over the last four weeks. 58. That's the fifth most in college football. And so here we are. And it would be very easy to be like, well, see, we told you the defense couldn't do it.

They gave up 48 points. They only gave up 251 yards total. The defense did. They only missed two tackles. That's via PFF. pro football focus. And there was two non-offensive touchdowns. So, like, this is why it's more alarming for USC is because I didn't expect it to happen

this way. I didn't expect the offense to look like this. The narrative surrounding USC has always been, can anyone beat them in a shootout? Maybe you can get to their defense, but you're going to have to score 48. Well, guess what? Notre Dame did score 48, but it was partly and mostly because the offense was inept on Saturday. Maybe an apt is too strong a word.

It's just the only word that I can like really tangibly grab onto right now. But that's what it looked like. The offensive line could not protect him. He was running for his life trying to make the plays that he needed to. And it didn't work. USC, by the way, still 4 and O in Pack 12 plays. So they're still alive for everything that they need to have. The problem is they're going to run into this gauntlet down the stretch.

This schedule down the stretch for USC is brutal. So they're going to have Utah, excuse me, number 14, at Cal. going to be their easiest remaining game. Then they've got Washington. Thankfully, for limits at home, they don't have to go up to Husky Stadium. But, hey, good luck. You've got to go up to the team that barely lost at Husky Stadium

and face them in their home stadium when they go to Eugene. And then they've got UCLA, who's still going to be a difficult team and pretty good at the line of scrimmage, even though they lost Oregon State. Brutal stretch for USC. If their offensive line doesn't get it together, they'll lose again. They'll lose again if they don't get it together on the offensive line. All right, let's move on.

We've got to talk about the Colorado collapse. Colorado, that was an historic collapse in a lot of ways. Largest blown lead in the history of Colorado football, 29-0, and it happened late on a Friday night. I was in the East Coast, and I am now feeling your pain. All of you that are East Coast college football fans, and when there's a game that you're interested in that comes on and it kicks at 8 Mountain 10 Eastern. I don't want to make this too much about that. But like, I think kicking at 10 Eastern is crazy.

And in a lot of ways, maybe the reason the conference doesn't exist moving forward. That being said, Colorado gave that game away with the help of some outstanding play from Stanford in the same. second half. It's got to be a combination. One team has got to play brilliantly in the second half. Stanford did. Ellick A. A.O. Manor was unbelievable. They found the things that were working.

They stuck with them. So like big tip of the cap to Stanford and ELEC A.O. Manor. He was unreal. You also have to give it away in a lot of respects. Okay. And I think we both know that both are true. So let's sit on that notion for just a moment. Colorado, in a big sense, gave that game away and they had to. And then Stanford took the baton and ran with it, quite literally. It was probably a slant pass. But when you start breaking down and watching,

and by the way, I did, didn't get a lot of sleep before that game on Saturday, you start looking at some breakdowns and failures. throughout the team for Colorado. Coaching failures, player failures, scheme failures, misd assignments, undisciplined play. You had all of it. It's a cocktail of all of it. All right.

It is a combination of everything that can go wrong. And nobody is above criticism. Dion himself, like there are some game management issues for Colorado that have got to get cleaned up and they can only land on the head coach. Just like Dan Lending has to answer for the fourth downs in the Oregon-Washington game. Well, guess what? Coach Prime has got to answer for some really poor decisions from a game management perspective in the Colorado loss to Stanford in the second half.

Number one, let's just talk like undisciplined play. They had 17 penalties, 17. Some of them agree just like, hey, guys, stop punching the other team after the whistle. That doesn't take any talent, none whatsoever. It doesn't take any effort. All it takes is, you know, being halfway smart. So the undisciplined play is now just not a problem in that game. It's been a problem in every game.

Colorado now averages double-digit penalties per game, and they are the most penalized team in the nation. So, like, that's a problem. That's a problem. And the nature with which those penalties happen. Like, for instance, as great a player as Travis Hunter is, he takes basically an unsportsmanlike conduct on a third down in the red zone.

They have them stopped. They stop them. They're going to force a field goal. By the way, if they kick that field goal, they probably don't come back and win. That penalty is one of the building blocks to the comeback. All of those building blocks have to happen in order for Stanford to come back and win the game.

Undisciplined play, massive problem. Game management issues. And there are several. Let me just point to a couple. If you're up 29 to nothing, the second half of that game has to look different because the goal isn't to win 63 to 0. It's to win.

If it happens to be 63 to 0, fine. But the goal can't be to win 63 to 0. The goal is to win the game. And the bottom line for Colorado is that they have a very high, ceiling at moments in a really low floor. So you've got to manage the floor. You've got to manage your weak links. If you know that there are weak links out there and there's a possibility for big touchdowns, guess what you've got to do? Shorten the game in the second half. So you do that by playing a little bit slower, maybe not as many passes, which leads to a lack of run game, which I'll get to

in a moment. But it also means that you've got to force them to drive the length of the field almost every time they touch the ball. Because again, it's just a function of time. The worst thing that you can do up 29 to nothing is give a team hope. How do you give them hope? You create a short field. In the first series of the second half, Colorado goes for it on fourth down. Now, I am not an analytics guy.

I see them and understand them and at times can be convinced that that's the proper decision. But every decision has to be made with the totality of the environment there. And I just don't believe that that algorithm can really have the totality of the environment sitting at its fingertips. They don't know about the low floor of the ceiling. They're just trying to create all these probabilities. Long story short, Colorado goes for it on fourth down. Okay, as was the case with Oregon, the decision, even if I don't agree with it, comes down to execution. So in the execution, it's fourth down and Colorado takes a sack.

You can't take a sack on fourth down as a quarterback. So what was a snap just across the 50-yard line plus territory for Colorado ends up being plus territory for Stanford and you turn the ball over. you realize that like the sack is basically the worst thing that you can do on fourth down as a quarterback if the worst thing is throwing a pick six because yeah you don't want to give up a pick six the next worst thing is is fumble the next worst thing is sack because everything other than that you can throw a pick that doesn't get taken back for six and it probably works out in your favor because what they should do is bat it down you're likely going to gain yards on the fourth down if they intercept the ball.

You have to throw the ball on fourth down. If you're a quarterback out there, throw the ball. This is what Chip Kelly was yelling at Dante Moore in the end of that UCLA Oregon steak game. Throw the ball on fourth down. Even if they pick it off, it's like a short punt. By the way, think of all the good things that can happen. We can catch it.

We can get a pass interference. It lands incomplete. Fine. They get the ball where it's snapped and not where I take a sack. You cannot take a sack there. Shodor Sanders does that way too. much. He has got to throw the ball. That's a game management issue. Then later in the second half, they go for it fourth and four at the Stanford 46, and he takes an intentional grounding.

These are quarterback errors, and I believe that they're mismanagement and going for the fourth downs in the first place. It's a four possession game. All you should be thinking about is time and field possession, and you can win the football game. If you just make them drive the entire length of the field, then guess what? You're probably going to win because they just run out of possessions. You take your series, make them drive the entire length. You take your series, make them drive the entire length. It's going to be difficult on them, even to get the four possessions necessarily. They punt the ball one time in the second half and you're probably going to win. Okay, so why give them a short field? You're creating the building blocks that allow them to come back in that game.

defensively, real quick, from a scheme perspective, part of make them go the entire length of the field, and then the next part of that is give up no big plays. They played the majority of the third quarter with a single safety, one post safety in the middle of the field. That's basically man-to-man coverage or single coverage on the outside. So Stanford just started wearing out the slant route. A.O. Manor just caught, what, 13 passes for 294.

yards and three touchdowns all after half time. And of those 13 catches, 10 of them had to be slants. At least, and they had the slot fade for the touchdown and the fade in the overtime for the touchdown. Like all the other ones were slants. And they just kept sitting there with a single safety. Against a single safety, I could complain eight million slants in a row in a row. If the formation was correct, they did not drop a linebacker into the slant window.

They didn't drop a defensive end into the slant window. And they didn't until the fourth quarter moved to a two safety look. so the corner could play in a jam technique where he didn't have to have deep responsibility. The lack of adjustment was concerning in a lot of respects. And again, if you're going to just, like I said, folks, all you have to do is make them go the entire length of the field and don't give up big plays. And you do that by playing soft coverage and force them to snap it 10 times. And they weren't able to do that. They gave up quick touchdowns.

They gave up short field touchdowns. They gave the game to Stanford as much as Stanford went out there and won it through great play from their wide receivers. Last point on this game. Last point. Travis Hunter played 157 total snaps on offense and defense. 157. He had 13 catches for 140 yards, two touchdowns on offense. He was dominant.

He was dynamic. He was fantastic. He was targeted as a corner 19 times in the game. But here's where it gets more interesting. and this is where we've got to have at least a little bit of conversation about freshness of what Travis Hunter was being asked to do late in the game. He was targeted 19 times. However, Stanford only completed one of the first six passes when they threw it at Travis Hunter.

And then the rest of the way, they were 10 of 13 for 153 yards and two touchdowns. And it really, it started on the long touchdown when he was trying to cover the slot fade. and you could see it. He didn't chase after A.O. Manor, and you could tell he was tired, and from that point on, they were no longer scared of him. In the first half,

they didn't attack him, or at least tried in the first quarter, they were one of four. Then they tried again in the second quarter, didn't complete it. He was being dominant at the corner position early because he was fresh. All right?

The problem is, as soon as they saw he was tired, it was on. And from that point on, 10 of 13, 153 yards. and two touchdowns. So it begs the question, I get it that he did it against TCU,

but wasn't this a different scenario? He just had a lacerated liver. I highly doubt that he's been conditioning at a high level for the last four weeks. Any of you out there, if you have a lacerated liver and you're trying to get yourself back, even if you're trying to be active

as best as you can to get yourself back to whatever you're doing, just go take a jog. Like try to run two miles after four weeks where you're just trying to recover from an injury. And in particular, in this case, an organ injury. So my point is there is no way that his cardiovascular system was at the point on Friday night that it was against TCU early in the year when he was dominant throughout the whole 150 snaps that he played. Remember, he chased down a TCU running back in that game.

game. He could not catch A.O. Manor in this game. Why? He wasn't in shape for this game because of the injury. I could see it. Even if he were to tell me like, no, no, no, no, no, you're wrong. I was in shape. No, no, no. We saw it. I know what it looked like against TCU and I know what I saw on Friday night against Stanford. So it just begs the question from a Colorado perspective, in that game, should you have managed his snaps? And the answer is probably yes. Now, I, this is not going to touch anything that Dion was talking about. Coach Prime was talking about in the locker room and their love for the game because I'm not around those players. This is specifically just what I saw in the game. And that's how it was given away. Undisciplined play, game management

fails, scheme fails, situational football fails from the quarterback. And then the last one is, if it's a third down in overtime, you cannot throw a 50-50 ball on third down. Shador Sanders made way too many mistakes. Is he the reason that? there in the game? Yes, because he played great in the first half. The problem with Colorado right now is that they're a really high ceiling team and they're a really low floor team and the low floor, when that comes out, it's bad because they're undisciplined. They don't adjust in schemes and their players don't play great in situational football. That has to change. Okay, very critical. All of that is very, very critical to tell you that they're in a precarious situation now as it comes to bowl eligibility.

If you look down the stretch for Colorado, they're going to be on an off week this week at UCLA against Oregon State, then Arizona, and then Wazoo and Utah. That's really difficult. If you get the fifth win against Stanford, then you think to yourself like, yeah, we can win one of those games and become bowl eligible.

Now they got to win two of those five games. That's going to be difficult. Really tough. Three of them on the road, and Arizona is way better than we anticipate in particular with what we saw with what they did against Washington State just this weekend. A couple of teams that had great wins on Saturday. North Carolina looks fantastic. That's a team that I put into the top 10 and they're going to make a legitimate run at this ACC because when you look at not only their schedule but then now what their team is constituted of, it suggests that this is a team that can really make some noise.

They've got a great quarterback. He's got a great target on the outside, Tess Walker. They got a very good pass rusher. They got an experienced head coach. They're fast. Watch out for UNC. I love Drake May. It's a 41, 31 win over Miami, and I was impressed.

I watched most of it when I was on the plane coming home. And the fact that they have Drake May, like, that's... that's a team that's going to be reckoned with in the ACC. I have a feeling it's going to be North Carolina, Florida State in that ACC championship game. And then another team, unbelievable win in a crazy fashion, by the way. They turned it over. They blocked an extra point. Wyoming misses a field goal.

But Air Force wins the group of five battle in Colorado Springs. They beat Wyoming. Now they're ranked. And they're the highest ranked group of five team. right now. They're going to be in line for a potential group of five bid to the New Year 6. And I'm for one loving it. I have a great affinity for the Air Force. I spent a lot of my youth on Saturdays watching Air Force games with my dad right there in that stadium. He was a Marine. Love to go down there and watch the cadets march in. And they are a really good football team.

That's an undefeated team that is ranked now and has a great path to a Mountain West title and potentially a new year six game. And now I'm just disappointed that the college football playoff is not here a year early in its 12 team format because I would love to see Air Force, the cadets, roll into the playoff. I would love to see that. I would love to see one of these teams have to face the option or, because this is a good team. I loved watching that game. Like I said, the ending was wild.

They fumbled twice, blocked an extra point, got a long touchdown. It was, it was fantastic. All right. Last thing before we get out of here is Saturday, Gus and I and Jenny were in Michigan, and we were doing the game, Michigan against Indiana. And it got away from Indiana. And I think for obvious reasons, right? So Michigan starts just beating them soundly, which we expected.

And, you know, in those types of games as a broadcaster, you are going to talk about a lot of things that don't necessarily relate specifically to the game on the field. Blowout material is what it's called. So you're going to talk about the overarching sport and have big themes. You're going to talk about stories within the team. You're going to talk about the Big Ten as a conference and Michigan's path because you're talking to Michigan fans. And there was something brought up on the broadcast and I just don't like the way that I handled it. And so I wanted to address it on the show.

It was brought up that James Franklin had talked in a press conference about scheduling. And he gave a long and thoughtful answer about scheduling. And in one point had insinuated, you know, there was one part of the quote that insinuated like, hey, we got teams in this conference that are buying out of contracts and the non-concernuated. conference, buying out of a tough game to just go play, not a tough game, because the point he was trying to make is that undefeated is really the goal, not necessarily strength of schedule, which is not what the intent of the playoff was in its four-team format at its inception. And his point is correct.

His point is correct. He gave a much more thoughtful answer than just the quote that I referred to. I want to be transparent enough with you, the listener, the viewer, and the fan of college football, you deserve to know when I feel like I wasn't at my best. What I said on the broadcast was not my best. I've done a, you know, earlier in my career, I remember saying something about like, hey, I thought, I gave a Nick Sabin might be close to being done take on, on coward. It was stupid.

And it was the dumbest thing I've ever. said on TV. I just want to make sure that I'm being transparent with you and saying like, I said on the game, that's pretty rich for a guy playing UMass. Wrong way to handle it. Wish I could have had that one back. James had given a more thoughtful answer than that. And in live TV, stuff like that happens. My intent was not to take a shot at James Franklin. I generally don't love when coaches talk about scheduling because I think that the scheduling process, in particular when they talk about the way some schedule over other, scheduling is broken in college football.

So coaches shouldn't really talk about scheduling because it's all over the map. I think until we get some sort of centralized way of scheduling non-conference games, like this is the way it's going to be. There's going to be uneven schedules. So to get upset about it, and I'm not suggesting that he was, I'm here to tell you I wish I would have handled that differently. What I wanted to communicate was exactly what I just communicated there is like, hey, you know, everybody's going to have soft games. Nobody's schedule is perfect.

And when we're comparing, we got to understand that when we leave non-conference schedules up to ADs, 10 years out, it's not going to be perfect. Yeah, so I wish I would have handled that better. And I'm sure, you know, the Penn State fans were upset. and you know what, rightly so, because it wasn't something that I was proud of and I just wanted to let you guys know that when that happens, you know, I wish I would have handled that differently.

We still have a lot to get into for Wednesday's show, so I'm excited about that. You can follow the show on social media at Joel Clashio. You can subscribe to the show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Rate, review the show, like the show. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Yeah, we get, again, college football, as we get into October, this is really the, like, the beauty.

You know, you get the separation, which teams are contenders, which teams are pretenders. So we'll have a lot going on on Wednesday show. We'll bring you previews on Thursday as we roll along here in the college football season. This show is always presented by Hampton by Hilton. I appreciate you listening, and I'll talk to you on Wednesday.